PyRep: Bringing V-REP to Deep Robot Learning

TL;DR

PyRep is a modified version of V-REP designed to accelerate robot learning research by providing a flexible API, improved rendering, and significant speed enhancements, enabling rapid development of learning algorithms.

Contribution

PyRep introduces a tailored V-REP platform with a flexible API, enhanced rendering, and 10,000x speed improvements for efficient robot learning experimentation.

Findings

Speed improvements of up to 10,000x over previous API

Enhanced rendering engine for better visualization

Flexible API for robot control and scene manipulation

Abstract

PyRep is a toolkit for robot learning research, built on top of the virtual robotics experimentation platform (V-REP). Through a series of modifications and additions, we have created a tailored version of V-REP built with robot learning in mind. The new PyRep toolkit offers three improvements: (1) a simple and flexible API for robot control and scene manipulation, (2) a new rendering engine, and (3) speed boosts upwards of 10,000x in comparison to the previous Python Remote API. With these improvements, we believe PyRep is the ideal toolkit to facilitate rapid prototyping of learning algorithms in the areas of reinforcement learning, imitation learning, state estimation, mapping, and computer vision.